SOLON, Ohio — People working in the travel industry have taken an economic hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the busiest time for business.
“I had destination weddings for April. I had two or three honeymoons in April,” Art Nittskoff said. “I had groups going in May. I had thirty-something people going on a cruise in May.”
As a travel agent of 38 years, Nittskoff said his clients have been canceling reservations left and right.
“Everything has stopped and we don’t know when it’s going to start again,” Nittskoff said. “So what happens with a travel agent is we don’t get paid until after people travel.”
For nearly four decades, Nittskoff has helped his clients book trips for leisure, including flights, hotel stays and transportation between the two.
“We’re one of the leading producers for Las Vegas in the whole country,” Nittskoff said, “But we sell more in Mexico than we do Las Vegas.”
When travel came to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so did the flow of income for travel agents.
“I’m unemployed basically,” Nittskoff said, “I’m working but I’m unemployed because I haven’t had a dollar come in since the middle of March.”
Nittskoff said he has not witnessed a catastrophe of this magnitude for the travel industry since Sept. 11, 2001.
“We thought we’d never see anything like 9/11 because travel stopped for five days,” Nittskoff said, “Nothing flew and we didn’t know any of the answers to the questions people were calling.”
Nittskoff said his clients aren’t taking any chances with their health during this pandemic.
“We’ve made it through SARS. We made it through Ebola,” Nittskoff said, “We made it through the recession of 2008, but we’ve never seen anything like this.”
Dr. Amy Acton announced Tuesday that the state is not yet ready to make any decisions regarding travel.
“Interestingly, of the six cases and in going back, our epidemiologists tell us that two of them had travel histories. One to Hawaii and one to California,” Acton said, “And again, that starts to fit with the clinical a bigger picture of the epidemiology of this disease.”
Nittskoff has built his career primarily by making phone calls, but said he’s struggled to get through to anyone who can help him get some sort of financial relief.
“We haven’t been able to get unemployment. We apply every week but so far we haven’t gotten anything,” Nittskoff said, “We applied for the PPP loan, but because it’s just the two executives of a corporation we didn’t get that.”
Nittskoff said aside from receiving his $1,200 stimulus check, he hasn’t made any money for nearly two months.
“I have a lot of people calling me, ‘When is Vegas going to open up? How’s it going to be?’ Unfortunately we don’t know the answers to all this stuff,” Nittskoff said.
He said treating his clients with loyalty and respect is his top priority during the pandemic, and hopes his customer service strategy will pay off down the road.
“I was working on the phone twelve hours a day. Everybody calling, ‘I’m supposed to go. What am I doing?’ So I just worked twelve hours a day for no money, but these are my customers,” Nittskoff said. “I know they’re going to call me again.”
While the future of leisurely travel is looming, Nittskoff believes the cruise industry may never be the same.
“I’ve got people already trying to book for next spring break and they’re worried about is it going to be safe?” Nittskoff said. “When you’re on a cruise ship you’ve got between four and six thousand people just on a big metal container and it’s really kind of hard to distance yourself.”
